Happy Thanksgiving to all ya'll peeps.
I'm thankful for many of the things today. I plan to disclose some info to my family today. This should not come as a surprise to them, but I'll be thankful once I do it and once they take it well. I assume they will.
See you on the other side.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Catch Up
Hey bloggy folk.
So it has been 10 days since I've blogged and even more since I really blogged. A slap on the wrist to me. But... life has been cray.
Let's see....
Sandy happened and fucked everything up. Like hardcore.
And because of her craziness, last week was INSANE.
I had an interview for an internship that I don't think I got because it's been over a week and a half and I've heard nothing from them. But that's ok cuz I'm mad busy.
I was in a show! I got promoted from Man 3 to Man 2 and went from 1 line to 2 lines! WOOT. It was brilliant. That was fun, but I was in tech and performances all week.
I auditioned for Spring Awakening. I did not get a callback. This saddens me.
I auditioned for West Side Story and was cast at Officer Krupke! This is more exciting. Also.. I believe this is the first time I've been cast in a musical in a non singing role. Interesting.
I drank a bit in celebration of my friend's 21st birthday. But nothing overly exciting happened.
I went to the MET.
I rehearsed for a Cabaret which is going to benefit Sandy victims. That is happening tomorrow night.
I collected for BC/EFA. More of that is happening today and tomorrow.
I worked the box office for The Cherry Orchard at PHTS. That was a bit of a disaster, but I worked through it and only had to fudge the numbers a little bit to make it work.
I was GOING to see Scandalous, a new musical on Broadway, on its last preview before opening BUT the star, and only reason anyone is seeing the show, Carolee Carmello was out on vocal rest. Does not bode well. But... if things continue as they have been... which they will... she won't be singing the crazy score for long. But anyhow.. I now have a ticket to a Broadway performance that didn't happen! COLLECTOR'S ITEM.
Instead, I saw the Cherry Orchard that night. And it was very good.
I rehearsed some more. For directing class and the benefit.
I saw The Daughters last night which ROCKED MY WORLD. It's a 45 min musical with riffs and power chords you wouldn't believe. And three of my friends were in it and kicked some serious ass. I LOVED IT.
Then last night I celebrated another friend's 21st bday. But I basically didn't eat anything all day... so for the first time I got blackout drunk. And woke up in some guys bed. It was a BAD life choice. And I lost a sock. And I went home at 10am. STILL DRUNK. like for realzies.
Then I had rehearsal for directing at noon.
Now I'm going to collect at Evita.
Then I'm doing some stuff downtown and going out to dinner and then out out to celebrate yet another friend's 21st bday! My lovely lady friend KIM. Hopefully tonight will not end as last night did.
All that happened in the past 10 days. Plus class, homework, and life type things.
Soon it will be time for thanksgiving and I will get to rest.
Talk to you sometime soon.
So it has been 10 days since I've blogged and even more since I really blogged. A slap on the wrist to me. But... life has been cray.
Let's see....
Sandy happened and fucked everything up. Like hardcore.
And because of her craziness, last week was INSANE.
I had an interview for an internship that I don't think I got because it's been over a week and a half and I've heard nothing from them. But that's ok cuz I'm mad busy.
I was in a show! I got promoted from Man 3 to Man 2 and went from 1 line to 2 lines! WOOT. It was brilliant. That was fun, but I was in tech and performances all week.
I auditioned for Spring Awakening. I did not get a callback. This saddens me.
I auditioned for West Side Story and was cast at Officer Krupke! This is more exciting. Also.. I believe this is the first time I've been cast in a musical in a non singing role. Interesting.
I drank a bit in celebration of my friend's 21st birthday. But nothing overly exciting happened.
I went to the MET.
I rehearsed for a Cabaret which is going to benefit Sandy victims. That is happening tomorrow night.
I collected for BC/EFA. More of that is happening today and tomorrow.
I worked the box office for The Cherry Orchard at PHTS. That was a bit of a disaster, but I worked through it and only had to fudge the numbers a little bit to make it work.
I was GOING to see Scandalous, a new musical on Broadway, on its last preview before opening BUT the star, and only reason anyone is seeing the show, Carolee Carmello was out on vocal rest. Does not bode well. But... if things continue as they have been... which they will... she won't be singing the crazy score for long. But anyhow.. I now have a ticket to a Broadway performance that didn't happen! COLLECTOR'S ITEM.
Instead, I saw the Cherry Orchard that night. And it was very good.
I rehearsed some more. For directing class and the benefit.
I saw The Daughters last night which ROCKED MY WORLD. It's a 45 min musical with riffs and power chords you wouldn't believe. And three of my friends were in it and kicked some serious ass. I LOVED IT.
Then last night I celebrated another friend's 21st bday. But I basically didn't eat anything all day... so for the first time I got blackout drunk. And woke up in some guys bed. It was a BAD life choice. And I lost a sock. And I went home at 10am. STILL DRUNK. like for realzies.
Then I had rehearsal for directing at noon.
Now I'm going to collect at Evita.
Then I'm doing some stuff downtown and going out to dinner and then out out to celebrate yet another friend's 21st bday! My lovely lady friend KIM. Hopefully tonight will not end as last night did.
All that happened in the past 10 days. Plus class, homework, and life type things.
Soon it will be time for thanksgiving and I will get to rest.
Talk to you sometime soon.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Obama
Well, this is basically all I have time for in my life this week.... Obama Won. And I couldn't be happier.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Skivvies
Tonight I went out to a bar to see this band called The Skivvies play a mini set. Eric Micheal Krop from Godspell was also singing, so that was a surprise!
The Skivvies are a duet consisting of this very attractive man, Nick Cearley and a lovely lady, Lauren Molina - who I saw on Broadway in Rock of Ages!
It was real great, but I was alone. Which was fine except... they gave away free tickets to Naked Boys Singing and Newsical the Musical! And... all I had to do was show them my "cute underwear." But since I was alone, I felt awkward and lacked the confidence to do it.
Now I'm pissed at myself. BOO. And I've got school in the morning.
OK. Sleep.
Wait... must show you pretty....
Ok. Done. (Also... it's much better in person ;))
The Skivvies are a duet consisting of this very attractive man, Nick Cearley and a lovely lady, Lauren Molina - who I saw on Broadway in Rock of Ages!
It was real great, but I was alone. Which was fine except... they gave away free tickets to Naked Boys Singing and Newsical the Musical! And... all I had to do was show them my "cute underwear." But since I was alone, I felt awkward and lacked the confidence to do it.
Now I'm pissed at myself. BOO. And I've got school in the morning.
OK. Sleep.
Wait... must show you pretty....
Ok. Done. (Also... it's much better in person ;))
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Close Friends
There is this thing on the facebooks now that you can add people to called Close Friends. It will notify you when they update their status, etc. I have used it solely as a stalking tool. It makes things very easy - all my stalking needs in one nice bundle, no need to hunt them down one by one.
I'm actually surprised that I have not gone above 3 people on that list. It is probably best I haven't. But I have just now shrunk that number from 3 to 2. I removed D from the list. I need to get over that and having constant daily reminders shoved in my face clearly just isnt going to help it.
So now only #MyFav (I've been thinking about switching this to C, but #MyFav was the original and I like the hashtag.) and Z remain. While I see nothing happening between me and either of these folks, it, for some reason, does not pain me as much to see. I've come to a comfortable place with still being obsessed to a certain degree with #MyFav but not quite as insanely as before. Going months without seeing him in person probably is helping that. Cuz.... SO PRETTY. Also.. did I ever tell you he hugged me after I saw Into The Woods? Yeah, that was a good day. I mean, I've sufficiently scared him forever, so why not keep tabs? Ain't gonna make anything worse.
Z on the other hand is actually still up in the air. It seems to me that the sparks will never ignite with this one, but I have not been SHUT DOWN in the way that I have with #MyFav and D. So... I leave this one for now.
I have tentative plans with this guy I met on Halloween at a bar when I was rather drunk for this weekend some time. We shall see how that goes. If it even goes. And I shall call him Cer because he has the same name as #MyFav but with an er stuck on to the end. Tis a more common name, but my crazy only allows me to see it through this lens. I'm sure I'll keep you posted on how this progresses.
ALSO. Last night I randomly went out to this bar with my roommate and her sister and sang some Karaoke! I sang Somebody to Love which many folks seemed to be impressed with, and then I Can't Fight This Feeling later on once everyone was more drunk and cared much less. It was great fun. But the problem was... I was at a straight bar. This provided jack diddly for me. Someday I will sing at a gay bar and the biddies will want me. I'm sure I'll tell you all about that when it happens too.
Ta ta for now. Have a swell rest of your weekend.
I'm actually surprised that I have not gone above 3 people on that list. It is probably best I haven't. But I have just now shrunk that number from 3 to 2. I removed D from the list. I need to get over that and having constant daily reminders shoved in my face clearly just isnt going to help it.
So now only #MyFav (I've been thinking about switching this to C, but #MyFav was the original and I like the hashtag.) and Z remain. While I see nothing happening between me and either of these folks, it, for some reason, does not pain me as much to see. I've come to a comfortable place with still being obsessed to a certain degree with #MyFav but not quite as insanely as before. Going months without seeing him in person probably is helping that. Cuz.... SO PRETTY. Also.. did I ever tell you he hugged me after I saw Into The Woods? Yeah, that was a good day. I mean, I've sufficiently scared him forever, so why not keep tabs? Ain't gonna make anything worse.
Z on the other hand is actually still up in the air. It seems to me that the sparks will never ignite with this one, but I have not been SHUT DOWN in the way that I have with #MyFav and D. So... I leave this one for now.
I have tentative plans with this guy I met on Halloween at a bar when I was rather drunk for this weekend some time. We shall see how that goes. If it even goes. And I shall call him Cer because he has the same name as #MyFav but with an er stuck on to the end. Tis a more common name, but my crazy only allows me to see it through this lens. I'm sure I'll keep you posted on how this progresses.
ALSO. Last night I randomly went out to this bar with my roommate and her sister and sang some Karaoke! I sang Somebody to Love which many folks seemed to be impressed with, and then I Can't Fight This Feeling later on once everyone was more drunk and cared much less. It was great fun. But the problem was... I was at a straight bar. This provided jack diddly for me. Someday I will sing at a gay bar and the biddies will want me. I'm sure I'll tell you all about that when it happens too.
Ta ta for now. Have a swell rest of your weekend.
THE WHALE at Playwrights Horizons
Last night I saw The Whale at Playwrights Horizons.
It was wildly different from basically anything else I've seen, yet at the same time, it's just a regular play. It is really just a play about a incredibly dysfunctional family, but the father weighs 600 pounds.
I will issue a spoiler alert now, if that sort of thing matters to you. It is hard to talk about this play without explaining things you don't know going in.
Charlie is the man at the center of this piece. He is morbidly obese and is a essay writing teacher of online classes. Early on we learn he will probably die by the end of the week, and sure enough, he does. But not without a lot of shit hitting the fan.
He is pleasuring himself when, coincidentally a Mormon missionary comes by. Charlie starts to have what seems to be some sort of heart failure and Elder Thomas comes in and Charlie insists that the only way to help him is to read this essay on Moby Dick. Elder Thomas does and Charlie is back to his normal state.
Charlie's only friend, Liz comes in shortly after and is a nurse; she takes care of Charlie because he refuses to go to the hospital. Charlie tells Liz that he wants to call Ellie, his daughter who is now 17 and whom he hasn't seen since she was 2.
Charlie was married and had Ellie. When she was two, he met this man named Alan and they fell in love. Charlie left his wife Mary to be with Alan. He had very little communication with Mary and Ellie from there on out. Ellie now hates everyone and has a blog in which she posts pictures and horrible writings about the people in her life and how she wishes great harm onto them. Ellie goes to Charlie's house and he offers her all the money he has saved from teaching (in the range of $120,000) if she will just let him get to know her a little. She comes each day and is horrible and rude, but eventually finds some love in her heart for her father.
Charlie's partner Alan died a few years prior to this, which is what spun Charlie into this spiral towards obesity. Alan was a Mormon but broke away from the church until one day his father asked him to come back and hear this one sermon. He did and after that day he shut down and refused to eat and slowly killed himself. We find out about half way through the play that Liz was Alan's sister.
The biggest thematic element of the show is this constant reference to Jonah and the Whale and Moby Dick. Elder Thomas keeps coming back to see Charlie and eventually gets information about the sermon that Alan heard, which was a big mystery until now. Alan was told the story of Jonah and the Whale and made to believe that because he loved Charlie, God would punish him. There is a lot of animosity towards Elder Thomas, but it turns out he is having his own issues with the church and has actually faked his current mission after being kicked off his original, real mission. He just wants to help someone, and make a difference - a feeling that was not shared with his original mission partner. He is trying to help Charlie, but in the end cannot.
Charlie is not saved, but in his final moments he has Ellie read him that essay on Moby Dick, which it turns out she wrote when she was in 8th grade and it is the only thing he had of her's for many years and that is why it brought him such comfort.
That was probably a really confusing summary, but there are just so many parts to this play that it is difficult to explain entirely without taking an hour and 50 mins like the running time of the show. Haha. That was a very effective tactic for this play - no intermission. You are forced to watch the demise of this man and all these people in his life for almost 2 hours without any break.
It was well crafted with surprises throughout and the production was fantastic; the acting, great - particularly Shuler Hensley who played Charlie.
I even bought the script because it is a really thought provoking play and I might want to do one of Elder Thomas' monologues for an upcoming audition.
And one last thought - there was a great line poking fun at The Book of Mormon that was subtle, but very effective.
Liz: You grew up in Iowa and they sent you to Idaho for your mission?
Elder Thomas: Yeah, I don't know. Some of my friends got to go to Los Angeles. A few went to Africa. It's--fine.
It was wildly different from basically anything else I've seen, yet at the same time, it's just a regular play. It is really just a play about a incredibly dysfunctional family, but the father weighs 600 pounds.
I will issue a spoiler alert now, if that sort of thing matters to you. It is hard to talk about this play without explaining things you don't know going in.
Charlie is the man at the center of this piece. He is morbidly obese and is a essay writing teacher of online classes. Early on we learn he will probably die by the end of the week, and sure enough, he does. But not without a lot of shit hitting the fan.
He is pleasuring himself when, coincidentally a Mormon missionary comes by. Charlie starts to have what seems to be some sort of heart failure and Elder Thomas comes in and Charlie insists that the only way to help him is to read this essay on Moby Dick. Elder Thomas does and Charlie is back to his normal state.
Charlie's only friend, Liz comes in shortly after and is a nurse; she takes care of Charlie because he refuses to go to the hospital. Charlie tells Liz that he wants to call Ellie, his daughter who is now 17 and whom he hasn't seen since she was 2.
Charlie was married and had Ellie. When she was two, he met this man named Alan and they fell in love. Charlie left his wife Mary to be with Alan. He had very little communication with Mary and Ellie from there on out. Ellie now hates everyone and has a blog in which she posts pictures and horrible writings about the people in her life and how she wishes great harm onto them. Ellie goes to Charlie's house and he offers her all the money he has saved from teaching (in the range of $120,000) if she will just let him get to know her a little. She comes each day and is horrible and rude, but eventually finds some love in her heart for her father.
Charlie's partner Alan died a few years prior to this, which is what spun Charlie into this spiral towards obesity. Alan was a Mormon but broke away from the church until one day his father asked him to come back and hear this one sermon. He did and after that day he shut down and refused to eat and slowly killed himself. We find out about half way through the play that Liz was Alan's sister.
The biggest thematic element of the show is this constant reference to Jonah and the Whale and Moby Dick. Elder Thomas keeps coming back to see Charlie and eventually gets information about the sermon that Alan heard, which was a big mystery until now. Alan was told the story of Jonah and the Whale and made to believe that because he loved Charlie, God would punish him. There is a lot of animosity towards Elder Thomas, but it turns out he is having his own issues with the church and has actually faked his current mission after being kicked off his original, real mission. He just wants to help someone, and make a difference - a feeling that was not shared with his original mission partner. He is trying to help Charlie, but in the end cannot.
Charlie is not saved, but in his final moments he has Ellie read him that essay on Moby Dick, which it turns out she wrote when she was in 8th grade and it is the only thing he had of her's for many years and that is why it brought him such comfort.
That was probably a really confusing summary, but there are just so many parts to this play that it is difficult to explain entirely without taking an hour and 50 mins like the running time of the show. Haha. That was a very effective tactic for this play - no intermission. You are forced to watch the demise of this man and all these people in his life for almost 2 hours without any break.
It was well crafted with surprises throughout and the production was fantastic; the acting, great - particularly Shuler Hensley who played Charlie.
I even bought the script because it is a really thought provoking play and I might want to do one of Elder Thomas' monologues for an upcoming audition.
And one last thought - there was a great line poking fun at The Book of Mormon that was subtle, but very effective.
Liz: You grew up in Iowa and they sent you to Idaho for your mission?
Elder Thomas: Yeah, I don't know. Some of my friends got to go to Los Angeles. A few went to Africa. It's--fine.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Who Am I?
I was posed this question by my Acting teacher twice now. We answered his question once, but it seems, as a whole, we didn't do it right. So he has prompted us again. This was my response. I think it came out pretty good- much more thoughtful than the last time. It may seem pretty rapid, but it took a long time to write. I didn't want to miss anything, yet I know I have.
Bryan Austermann
Acting II
Group C
Who Am I? – October 31, 2012
I am Bryan Austermann. I am loving. I am powerful. I am weak. I am angry.
I am timid. I am upset. I am tired. I am crazy. I am energetic. I am sorry. I
am gay. I am a democrat. I am scared. I am hopeful. I am white. I am boring. I
am interesting. I am funny. I am lonely. I am sad. I am attractive. I am
ignored. I am undesirable. I am a failure. I am successful. I am unemployed. I
am lost. I am content. I am a man. I am feminine. I am masculine. I am strong.
I am worthless. I am treasured. I am safe. I am protected. I am vulnerable. I
am mature. I am silly. I am immature. I am obsessed. I am clingy. I am distant.
I am reserved. I am quiet. I am loud. I am organized. I am unprepared. I am
worried. I am trying. I am crying. I am stuck. I am helpless. I am desperate. I
am wounded. I am ugly. I am fat. I am not fat. I am tall. I am solid. I am
miserable. I am a volunteer. I am thankful. I am protecting. I am helpful. I am
loved. I am desired. I am refused. I am in love. I am alone. I am German. I am
Italian. I am Irish. I am unknown. I am a son. I am a grandson. I am a nephew.
I am a cousin. I am a brother. I am younger. I am older. I am late. I am a
student. I am a leader. I am a teacher. I am alive. I am living. I am hungry. I
am searching. I am confused. I am ashamed. I am fake. I am honest. I am
deceitful. I am smart. I am stupid. I am foolish. I am emotional. I am
destroyed. I am working. I am friendly. I am hateful. I am inconsiderate. I am
thoughtful. I am an adult. I am a child. I am dependent. I am independent. I am
an individual. I am the same as everyone else. I am here. I am Bryan
Austermann.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)